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Post by Rune Lai on Oct 28, 2020 17:57:16 GMT -5
Thanks. For now, good wishes are fine. I don't know yet whether or not I'm going to be hospitalized for this one, in which case I may want some books or a game since I'm afraid I'll get bored out of my mind if I have to be stuck in a hospital bed for days with no visitors because of covid.
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Post by Solana on Oct 29, 2020 11:09:39 GMT -5
Okay, just let me know. I have more books to pick up for Christmas shopping, (surprise, surprise) and would have no problem adding a few. Plus, I still have a membership at the 'new' bookstore and the 'putting up with our sh*t' discount at the old place. Same if you wanna pass any questions along to my nurse mom. As we all know, you need something done, you ask the nurse.
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Post by Rune Lai on Nov 7, 2020 17:17:09 GMT -5
Well, I've had a little more time now and the ball's gotten rolling on my medical care. It looks like I'll be starting chemotherapy in a couple weeks (and I'm having minor outpatient surgery next week in prep for that). The big surgery when they actually remove the tumor will only be after chemo. I haven't met with the oncologist who will be handle my chemo yet, so I don't know how long that will be, but the surgeon was very friendly and very informative. I brought a lot of questions with me to the appointment and he answered most of them before I even had to ask (and let me know a lot of things I didn't even have on my radar).
After the surgery I will be hospitalized though, probably for 4-10 days and I'll likely drop off the internet while I'm there.
The good thing is that it sounds like I'll probably get to keep part of my stomach (I was afraid I'd lose all of it), but the surgeon won't know how much until he actually gets in there and operates.
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Post by Solana on Nov 8, 2020 10:38:47 GMT -5
(Hug) I'll be waiting for medical questions or lists of books. Do not hesitate to ask for either.
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Post by northlander on Nov 8, 2020 16:58:39 GMT -5
Oof, I missed this thread the first round it made, so let me give you my well wishes this time at least.
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Post by Rune Lai on Nov 9, 2020 14:37:34 GMT -5
Thanks, guys.
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Post by skylark on Nov 9, 2020 18:24:15 GMT -5
(Belated hugs.) =<
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Post by Rune Lai on Dec 13, 2020 17:50:01 GMT -5
So I had my first chemo session last Thursday. It was not great. I could barely eat anything for days. But the good thing is that the first one is supposed to be the worst. The doctor and nursing staff now know how I react to the various chemo drugs and I have improved medication to handle the side effects. I'm eating again and doing what I can to put back on the weight that I lost.
I have three more chemo sessions, each one on a two week cycle, before I go into surgery so I'll probably be going through ups and downs at lease through January.
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Post by Rune Lai on Dec 16, 2020 16:19:54 GMT -5
Tomorrow is my second chemo session. What it is, is I basically sit in a chair for 3-4 hours while they IV drip the medication into my veins. It's not that exciting, but the nurses frequently check in on me to make sure I'm comfortable (they are so good with providing heated blankets) and that the medicine is going down well. (Last week I had a bad reaction to one of them, but they intervened quickly and my condition was brought under control.) I'm in good spirits again, compared to when I made my last post, and it's mostly because I got some new nausea medication that lets me eat. If I'm not on it, eating is potentially terrible, as I have to eat carefully to make sure I don't upset my stomach. With the new meds I can eat almost whatever I want and it will probably be okay. Mind, I'm not going to town on fried food or anything, but "almost anything I want" means I'm not stuck eating crackers and chicken noodle soup. It's a world of difference. I burned through The Bone Shard Daughter between my chemo session and being laid up in bed last round, so this time, my book is going to be Shadow of the Fox by Julia Kagawa, thanks to Solana. It looks like it's got some heft, so it should be more than enough to cover the length of my chemo session.
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Post by Solana on Dec 16, 2020 16:33:07 GMT -5
Heated blankets are the best, especially in a hospital. I'm glad that you're able to eat "real food", too. One tricky thing in the book is that it changes point of view every chapter, and it's not until the sequel that the author added the names. Even so, the characters are distinct enough that it's very easy to tell who is narrating. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and there are two more in the series for later.
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Post by Rune Lai on Mar 1, 2021 19:13:58 GMT -5
Time for an update. I have my surgery date now. I'll be going in on the 15th, so I'll probably disappear from here the day before since I expect I'll be busy prepping, and I don't know exactly when I'll be back. My hospital stay is expected to be 4-10 days depending on how much of my stomach is removed and how smoothly I seem to be recovering. But it's possible that even once I'm released I might not feel that great.
The new normal isn't expected to settle in until 4-6 weeks after surgery. I hesitate to say fully healed because even if I keep part of my stomach, it's going to be very small and the surgeon says it'll probably take about a year before I'll be able to eat a full plate of food in one sitting.
My chemo is going to start up again two months after surgery, so I won't be out of the woods even afterwards, and it's going to be fun trying to keep a healthy body weight while not being able to eat much, but I'll try. I suspect there will be a lot of protein shakes and Carnation Essentials in my future.
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Post by Solana on Mar 1, 2021 19:55:33 GMT -5
(All the good luck hugs and fireworks.)
In the immortal words of the Janitor, "Let's make cancer feel foolish!"
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Post by skylark on Mar 2, 2021 17:50:37 GMT -5
You'll beat this, I know it. *hugs*
*Goes off to find wherever the hell Zero and Anon are hiding so they can give their well-wishes too.*
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Post by Rune Lai on Mar 2, 2021 19:53:09 GMT -5
Thanks guys.
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Post by DarkKnight on Mar 5, 2021 11:18:45 GMT -5
::hug::
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